"Sister! Wait for me! I'm carrying the wood right now! If you walk on without me, I shall surely tell Mother!" The younger brother cried out to his sister, who was resting on a fallen log, tired from their labour. A wicked, mirthful smile curled upon her lips as she gave a light, bubbling laugh, a sliver of raw lotus leaf held between her teeth. She sprang up and hastened to hoist her brother upon her shoulder, lightly swatting his behind. The boy protested in playful outrage, yet this small, fleeting happiness was a treasure rarely found…
"There you go again! Cease this whining, little tell-tale! I am too weary to sit and endure Mother's scolding while roasting these crazy stems! Ha-ha!" she declared with a final, echoing burst of laughter. The joy of working alongside her beloved brother, nestled beneath the leafy canopy that served as a sheltering shroud, obscuring the ruins of a towering, treasure-laden spire. They were felling a plant in the very heart of the forest, amidst the sprawling remnants of the past. When she gazed up at the zenith of the trunk they were severing, she saw only broad lotus pads, while the stem itself was the intricate branch of some submerged, ocean-dwelling weed. They were harvesting it for their supper this night.
"Sister, if everything disappeared, would you still remain?" The boy's voice, tinged with a fading, melancholic tremor, vanished entirely.
"Ah, yes... and where is my brother, then...?" As her eyes swept the surroundings, everything had utterly vanished. Her brother... the wood-axe... the vast forest... and the spire—all dissolved into nothingness. "Your Highness! Supper is prepared. Please ready yourself to descend; His Majesty awaits." A maidservant's voice called from behind the grand doors. Yet, in the silence that followed, there was no sound of high heels, no music, no noise at all. The oppressive, deafening quiet left her utterly bewildered.
"What did that moment, just before, signify?" She rubbed her eyes, now faintly wet with the river of her yearning memory.
The Princess rose from her immense, wool-woven bed—a space vast enough to be an opulent prison cell. She stood in silence for a long moment, gazing down at both her hands in pensive confusion. But she spoke no further, as if she had comprehended the truth, or perhaps simply chose not to acknowledge the bewildering mystery. Her gaze travelled across the chamber; her eyes were sorrowful, yet still shining with a resolute hope.
"Your Highness, pray do not tarry. This meal is exquisitely delicious, made by my own hands. I beg you to make haste, before its fragrance fades." The maidservant's voice rose, yet it was unnervingly flat, as if everything now occurring were being scripted, planned, constructed, and directed by some unseen entity.
"Hmm." She walked toward the door, leaving the room devoid of the essence she had seen before, passing the serene view outside the bedroom window. She ceased looking at it as if she had seen the breathtaking vista countless times before. It was a scene too beautiful to be diminished. She turned back; the crescent moon spun so fast her eyes could not follow, like a demonic gyre, yet it was also as exquisitely beautiful as the hidden footstep of a divine and never-before-seen Sovereign.
Creak~ She opened the door... Yes, she opened it and stepped through...
"This way, my beloved Lady." No one waited to greet her. It was not even the attending maidservant, but rather a great owl, half her own size. "Oh, I presume I have startled you, Your Ladyship." The Princess's face betrayed her shock, and she rushed toward the owl, not for an embrace, but because the interior was no bare room. Instead, it was an arrayed hall, a dimension where a colossal tree stood at the centre of a vast, communal space, and surrounding that tree was a chasm. When she peered down over the wooden railing of the long walkway, she saw an immense, staggering host of blue lights, accompanied by whispering voices that seemed to call out to her... She wept. She knew not why, but she wept...
"Sister is here." She dropped to both knees upon the frigid floor, her body sinking down until the ache pierced her very bones. She saw a single blue light float up toward her from the chasm beyond the railing. She extended her hand to embrace it, seeking the meager warmth she once possessed, but the owl fanned it back with a wide, powerful beat of its wing. The sheer force of the wind silenced the calling whispers.
"That is not what you believe it to be, my beloved Lady." The owl stated, using its beak to pluck something suspended from its own neck, hidden beneath its thick, bluish-white feathers. She accepted it: a shapeless pendant that materialized in her hand. She looked around once more after her hand had touched the object...
"Is this place... a dream, is it not...?" she asked, her voice laden with disbelief. The sight of the boundless expanse, the open maw in the ceiling that held a sliver of red light, and the chasm she had just witnessed—the repository for the monumental, staggering blue lights—was a spectacle too magnificent for any human eye to process. She gazed at it for a very long time. The azure flames still strove to float and circle around her.
"Hope and dreams... memory and what remains," the owl pronounced, bowing its head toward the depths of the abyss. She reached her hand out beyond the safety railing. Instantly, her hand was scorched, only to revert to its normal state in the blink of an eye. She looked into a reflective surface, but saw not her own image, but rather a reflection of herself from another hemisphere—yet she was not in multiple locations. She could scarcely believe her eyes when she spotted a long, spanning bridge, its rope-lines fed through the hollows of the gigantic tree, stretching toward its terminus. Its sheer scale was comparable to the vast, open ocean in her sight.
Whoosh. The sound of wings beating was a soft whisper to the ear.
"Come, alight upon my back, before the Sovereign is made to wait any longer." The phrasing shifted, yet the girl, who had forgotten the thoughts lost in the clouds, leapt onto the owl's back. Its wings, vast as the sails of a ship, spread out as it soared into flight. The fragrant scent of the Bilenner flowers—which resembled a blend of tulips and blooming lavender from a garden—was now planted along the edges of the bridge-path, as if they were smiling up at those who traversed the air.
The Princess, or the sister, or merely this pure, singular spirit... She gazed upon the tree, which was beyond all estimation in size. On both sides of the path, with the tree at the centre, were countless closed doors, each leading into a chamber. She observed the entire, wondrous space. It was undeniably beautiful, like a perfect dream, yet more terrifying than the narrowest of caves. Every door to every chamber was utterly distinct, requiring no explanation. She saw the wooden railing and the bizarre, fantastical spire—the very space she had once stood upon. The long ramps of what seemed like skyscrapers resembled congested living quarters, yet, inexplicably, they were imbued with a sense of magnificent splendour.
"My Lady, please do not gaze so long. I fear you will fall from my back." The owl spoke with genuine concern. It flew high, sometimes dipping and soaring, but the more she looked, the more lost she felt. It was exactly as the owl had forewarned.
"Those blue lights..." The flickering clusters of light offered a strange, unsettling purity, and a warmth akin to that of a winter hearth. She yearned to capture them, to feel them, but the constant, buffeting wind from the flapping wings kept them at bay. These lights still pursued her, signaling hope. They, all of them... were still young in this merciless world.
"The virtue of hope... dreams, and... the memories that are pure, pristine, and soothing to the eye... These are the clusters of what remains with us now. But the reason I forbid Your Ladyship from touching them is because... they are not what you imagine." The clearer the words, the deeper the incomprehension. Yet, upon hearing the phrase "not what you imagine," she could no longer hold back her tears.
"How much longer must we fly... until we reach the dining chamber?" She seemed to have forgotten something, asking after another memory—as if what was happening now was nothing new. "Ah, I completely forgot to mention it, Your Ladyship! Haha! It is not far now, so please be utterly relieved. I shall certainly not let you fall from the soft cushion upon my back." The wind velocity increased, and the owl's speed quickened. Their shadow, cast upon the air above the deep, magnificent chasm—a rare beauty in a blood-soaked world—only beckoned her to gaze upon it more intensely.
The wide wings soared with the swiftness of an owl's shriek. Every time the wings spread, the blue lights that had been circling the Lady were flung further away, unable to keep pace. The great owl did not diminish its speed, maintaining the Princess's perfect balance as if it had performed the feat a million times. The immense tree obscured parts of the view; branches, some protruding from ancient chambers, others piercing the crossings of the bridge. The Princess looked toward the several bridges, and upon each, she saw lights, more brilliantly azure than the clusters, stepping toward the giant tree...
She felt no doubt, as if she knew what was transpiring. She looked forward. The owl carried her through buffeting winds, storms, and the very edge of the horizon. A thousand sunsets seemed to fall away—a sight beyond all description. "My Lady, you must not fear. Prepare yourself now."
The owl inverted itself. "Wait!" The girl gasped, losing her breath. She stared ahead at the summit, where a strange light, alien to this world, resided. Initially, she had seen it as red, but up close, it transcended all comprehension.
Blood splattered from her body, staining her white skin crimson and then sickly pale. Her eyes bulged, then settled back to white. Her light blue hair with orange tips turned white before returning to its original shade. Everything, upon passing through that uncanny light, made her body revert and repeat, endlessly. And when the trajectory finally ended...
Thud... The girl's slender frame collapsed onto the hard, reflective glass floor.
"Does it pain you?" A single hand extended toward her, as she still lay prostrate, gazing around the chamber. She fixed her eyes upon that hand before reaching out to touch it.
"Who are you? I do not..." She wanted to ask further, but the answer in her mind was too certain to be voiced.
"I am the King of the Kingdom of Saint-Thaiyanna-Kron. I stand beside those who have lost. I stand beside those who are cursed. I stand beside you. I stand beside those who are forgotten... I am... the Sovereign." His voice was gentle, tranquil... lonely, and desolate. He neither laughed nor wept. Perhaps calling him 'he' was incorrect; it was 'this being' instead. This sacrificing being, beneath a chamber as vast as the stars. This being who sat alone upon a throne, with no one to attend him. This being who held a long scythe. This being who bore a sword as brilliant white as the final sun. This being who transformed the self-forgotten into something too pure to be touched...
The room, filled with blue, golden-yellow, and white light, was a constellation of stars beneath a black floor and a million reflecting mirrors. Mirrors that projected stories following the thread of fate. The image of a black warrior ceaselessly hunting a god still flickered. The image of a hunter, a bandit, or perhaps a bounty hunter, sitting with a small, unclothed sprite beside a campfire. And the image of a woman, her body soaked with the scent of blood, standing amidst a never-ending war.
Many others in these images were people of the kingdom... But why did they offer no answers to all those she had met...? Let it be forgotten... For none of this mattered any longer...
The Crown of Thorns hovered above his head. His hands were withered. The mask was emotionless, yet a faint, small smile lingered beneath it, making this being appear all the more piteous. His tattered robe stretched throughout the room. He took the girl's hand, guiding her final consciousness to rest upon the tree in the centre of the chamber...
"Thank you, Your Sovereign..." He returned her smile beneath the mask... before waving a final farewell, allowing her to become one with... the nature of what ought to be.